Letters of Our Names

Do the words big line, little line, big curve, and little curve sound familiar to you?  

They are the names of the forms we used to build and draw Mat Man!  We have continued to work with these forms. And this time, we aren't using them to build a character...

...but we are building the first letters in our names!

Our new tool this week was a magnetic board.

First we have to find the correct forms that we need in order to make our letter, 

and then we press them onto our boards.

After we have created our letter with our forms, we trace them with our fingers, 

making sure to say hello to Mr. Smiley at the top!  This helps children to remember where letters start and to remember the direction they will use when they write the letters on paper.  

"Hi, Mr. Smiley! Little line across the top, big line slides down, little line across the bottom."

Finally, it is time to trace with the magnetic pencil!

Taking time to work through all of these steps builds a deeper awareness of the process of writing.  The multi-sensory approach allows students to develop visual memory as well as a tactile, kinesthetic memory of each letter.  Verbalizing the steps reinforces the auditory memory and connects verbal thinking to motor thinking so that children learn the most efficient process with with to write each letter.  It helps them move from "drawing" the letters to fluent and consistent writing.  

We find that taking the processes slowly in the beginning means that in later grades, fewer children struggle with handwriting and keyboarding.  Students have a solid foundation of understanding and can write as fast as they can think.  Students write longer paragraphs and sentences with more details when this is true.  

For more information about working at home, follow this link.